


Where Nightmares Dwell

by I_am_a_Ruin



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Horror, Alternate Universe - Human, Haunted Houses, Psychological Horror, Psychological Torture, maybe character death maybe not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 02:49:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9155800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_am_a_Ruin/pseuds/I_am_a_Ruin
Summary: Amelia decides to partake in a classic coming of age ritual: spend the night in the town's "haunted" house.Unfortunately, things do not go as well for her as they have for others.(Starts out cheesy, but it will get bloodier as it progresses)





	

The clock ticked behind her, the gears in the back of it clicking as they rotated. How it still functioned after so many years, she was not certain.  There was a weird sense about the place. Her friends had warned her against coming, but obviously, she had not listened. She was Amelia F. Jones and that F stood for fearless and she would prove it. 

She only had to explore for the rest of the night. No problem. One flashlight, a full thermos containing coffee with six shots of espresso, a bag of M&M’s, and a sleeping bag she had stuffed it all in and slung over shoulder. She clutched her bag to her chest and crept through the dark hallway. The rotting floorboards creaked under  the steps of her Vans. “Just one night, Amelia.” She reminded herself. 

Of course Sakura would absolutely hate this if she knew. She often tried to persuade Amy into realizing she was running full force into a bad idea. However, Amy was not so great at listening once she got an idea into her head. So she had decided to happen to forget to inform the Japanese girl she was spending the night in a haunted house. 

Good grief, that clock was obnoxious. She wanted to smash it. The sound was eerie and she wished for silence. Doing her best to ignore it, she continued on her way, further into the building. It was not so much a home as an orphanage. Supposedly, the original owners had taken in children from all over the world to care for but it was only a façade. They had, according to the myths, locked the children in random rooms and one by one, cut them open and used their body parts for science. There was even a graveyard surrounding the home. And all of the headstones only had strange names, as if all the children had come from a very foreign country.

She heard the creak of a door opening and flashed her light around, searching for the sound. She found nothing, her heart was in her throat. The floorboards groaned under moving weight that was not her own but she could not find the source.  Deciding that her fear was playing tricks on her, she continued her way through the foyer. 

“ _ Aaaaamy _ ” came a chilling whisper from right behind her. She wheeled around, heart throwing itself against her chest. 

A girl with white hair dripping water around her and a face paler than her hair stared back at her, eyes blood red. In her panic, it took Amy a moment to recognize her friend, Julchen Beilschmidt. Amy rolled her eyes, she was definitely not scared out of her mind. As if. “Please, Julchen, dude. You’re so not scary.”

A cackle from behind her made Amy jump towards her friend. “WHO’S THERE?” 

Julchen doubled over laughing as Michaela stepped out of the shadows. “So much for not being scared, huh?” Julchen managed between fits of laugher.

“I was just playing along!” Amy protested, crossing her arms in a pout. “Why are you guys even here anyway? I thought you didn’t like this house.”

“Like we’d let you come by yourself,” Michaela threw an arm across Amelia’s shoulders to prove that they were a team.

“And we are way too awesome to be scared of this place.” Julchen agreed, venturing further into the dark hallway to demonstrate her bravery. 

Amy and Michaela followed her, linking arms as the did. Julchen tripped over the staircase she hadn’t seen in the darkness. That’s when Amy realized Julchen could probably use the flashlight. The small thing was not very great at permeating in the dense shadows with it’s weak beam. She wished she had thought to bring a stronger flashlight. 

“Did you guys bring anything with you?” Amy asked at the thought. 

She could hear Michaela’s groan in front of her,“Ugggh.”

“Um, our awesome selves?” Julchen called over her shoulder as they climbed the narrow flight of stairs. 

“Guys! I’m not sharing any food, btw.” Amy said, crossing her arms and then thinking better of that when she stumbled on the landing of the second floor. 

“Well, Michaela knows the layout of the house so that should make finding a place to sleep easier, right?” Julchen argued. 

“I suppose. How’d you find blueprints though? Those are really hard to get ahold of.” Amy was extremely impressed.

Michaela shrugged. “This place is a really big ghost story in my family. You know, ‘cause of the orphans.”

“Oh, of course.” Amy nodded, pretending she knew what Michaela was talking about.

“She’s Danish, idiot.” Julchen reminded her, as if that explained everything.

Amy wasn’t sure what pastries had to do with slaughtered children but she also did not want to sound stupid so she just nodded again. “They adopted the kids from Denmark, Amy.” Michaela added, noticing Amy was not getting it. 

“OOOOOOoooh.” Amy said confidently, feeling like an idiot because she still was not making the connection.

Satisfied that their friend understood, Michaela led the way from the landing to a huge bedroom. 

There was an ugly shade of green paint on the walls, but most of it was peeling off in long, jagged curls. The carpet was rotting and worn through in places, but was so thick was dust it was difficult to tell what was carpet and what was bare patches of floor coated in dust. 

“You know, some say the parents sprinkled the ashes of the children they liked best in this room instead of using them for parts.” Julchen said quietly, a grin on her face as Amy recoiled from her investigation on the thickness of the dust.

“That’s not true.” Amy said, staring in horror at the filth on her slim finger. 

“Maybe,” Michaela piped in, but not sounding convinced, more placating. 

Amy shuddered and wiped the ashes or dust on Julchen’s shirt sleeve.

“BRRRRROOOOOO!” Julchen shrieked, jolting away in disgust, furiously swiping at the stuff on her shirt.

Amy  giggled, but she was quickly distracted by an odd sound. “Do you guys hear that?”

The other two girls quieted down, listening hard. It was definitely more noticeable now. A certain  _ drip, drip, drip _ . The sound was faint but definitely there. 

“I think it’s coming from one of the rooms leading off the landing.” Michaela murmured. 

They followed the sound to the landing and to through a door on the left. 

“Is this the research lab?” Julchen asked, shining the light around. 

Directly to the left of the door was a line of filing cabinets, most of the black paint rusted through. They tried opening them, but the seemed to be rusted shut after years of disuse. There was a large brown stain on the center of the floor and a cluster of candles on top of it. Amy really wanted to pretend the stain wasn’t blood. There was a box on the other wall filled with moth-eaten blankets and a next to it, strangely, a Newton’s Cradle. The dripping had to be coming from this room, as the sound was the loudest here, but Amy could not see a source for it. She stepped further into the room, headed towards the pendulum. As she did, the dripping stopped an the small balls began swinging slightly. Amy slowed down, staring at it, trying to decide if she was imagining the movement or not. However, then one of the metal balls swung far from the others in the opposite direction and collided back with a loud  _ clack _ . It started the dance of the pendulum, the first and last balls clicking and clacking against the others. 

“G-guys…” Amy stammered, unnerved. 

“Amy, stop playing. You’re freaking me out,” Michaela said from the other side of the room where she was investigating the strangest object in the room, a Scrabble game.

“Dude, that’s  _ sick _ . Look at some of these words. You think they played this while they wrote their notes or dissected body parts?” Julchen asked, her voice low with a certain level of disgust.

“No, guys! I didn’t even  _ touch  _ it.” Amy insisted, trying to get their attention.

The two looked over at Newton’s Cradle. “Nice try, Amy.” Julchen laughed, rolling her eyes.

“Wait, listen. The dripping stopped.” Michaela said, nudging the Prussian with her elbow as the girls stood. 

“Freaky. It’s probably just a leaky pipe or something.” Julchen shrugged.

“Can’t be. This place doesn’t have piping. It was built in the eighteenth century, remember?” Michaela said, joining Amy in staring at the cradle.

“Well, it’s haunted isn’t it? So, maybe it’s the blood of their victims.” Julchen suggested in a mock-creepy voice.

“But what about Newton’s-” Amy demanded.

“Amy, we know it was you, c’mon.” Julchen sighed, shaking her head and going to leave the room. 

“I  _ sw _ -” Amy started again, only to get cut off as the door slammed shut, rattling the entire room with it’s force.

Scarlet began flowering on the walls, running down the concrete. Amy and Julchen screamed as the blood formed the words:  _ GET OUT! _

But then they heard Michaela giggling and moving closer to the wall. “Guys, calm down.” 

“B-but…” Amy said on a ghost of a whisper, feeling faint with terror.

“It’s just a prank some kids last year set up.” Michaela informed them. “The floor is weight sensitive and enacts certain ‘spooky’ things around here. I’ll show you. Amy, step a couple feet towards the door.”

Amy hesitantly did as she asked, her heart still feeling ready to explode. Newton’s Cradle stopped its clicking and the dripping started back up. She moved back and away a few times before she was convinced. “Woah. That’s cool.”

“And the blood?” Julchen asked, pointing in annoyance at the letters that were already starting to fade. 

“I think that’s you… Not sure. But it’s disappearing ink, see? They just added some red coloring I guess, for effect.” Michaela explained. 

“Awesome.” Julchen decided she was no longer annoyed and turned away to examine the other door on the far wall. It was a vault door, completely steel and locked up.

When she moved towards it, the other door that had slammed shut opened with a loud squeal. Amy waited for Julchen to give up trying to open the vault before the three decided to set up their things in the master bedroom.

“You are not expecting me to sleep on that bed.” Michaela declared, eying the sunken in queen-sized bed.

“It’s probably crawling with spiders and bedbugs and roaches and… I don’t know,  _ worms _ .” Julchen added, shuddering.

“You guys should have brought sleeping bags then because your other option is the ash-carpet.” Amy shrugged, feeling a small amount of sympathy. 

“Can you at least figure out what’s causing the dripping sound because there’s no way I can sleep with it, Michaela.” Julchen complained, covering her ears and putting extra weight on certain places. 

“Sorry. Anything could have started it.” Michaela sighed, poking the musty bedspread and shivering, very displeased. “I think I’ll take the carpet. Why do we have to sleep in here again?” 

“That’s the challenge. Kids sleeping in their bedroom and getting out the next day intact.” Amy explained.

“That’s easy enough for you! They’re not racist against  _ Americans _ ! And their spirits probably heard me say I’m Dutch!” Michaela said, tugging on an end of her hair.

“No one is making you stay, Michaela.” Amy said, not meaning it. She really did not want to be left alone. “I’m sure we’ll be fine.” 

Julchen gave up on making the dripping stopped and turned towards them. “If you’re done with that, can we go explore the rest of the place?”


End file.
